Educational Programming for Yom Ha'atzma'ut

We welcome educators and lay leaders to use the ideas below for work with adolescents, students and members of the community. Ideas for programming with younger children can be found in the Ben Gurion Years Activity Bank & Creative Workshops sections on http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/50/act/

Looking Ahead, Looking Around

Today, with all the questions in our mind and an awareness of Israel's problems, there can be no greater question in our minds than where Israel can or will go in the first century of the next millenium, after the remarkable progress of the first 51 years, albeit a period also marked by great turbulence.

Activity Suggestions

Let us make this a personal and visual journey for participants by enabling individuals to define their own starting points. This will inevitably also foster a sense of identity and interest in Israeli life and reality - whether our students will merely maintain an active interest in the State, or whether they make a greater commitment to come and be part of that life.

Stage 1

1. Divide the URLs below among working groups of participants, with each sub-group taking one or two urls so that all are covered.

2. The task is for individuals to find here images of places/scenes or people which make an impression and to think why. If you can print in color, this would help.

3. Members of each subgroup (or the entire group if not too large) present their choices in a whip round, with the reasons for their choice.

4. Summarise with the entire group what impressions they hold of Israel and follow by

5. What Israel means to them (whip round) and what it will mean to them as
they take their place in the adult world in the next century. Ask also, what
questions they may have in their mind about Israel today.

6. If you wished to select a picture for Israel's future, what would it be - and what does it mean, a question which concerns you*? - work in groups, again.

7. Together again.
Who would be the major personalities [see people] and what would be the major developments in Israeli life that your participants would like to see? - specify that you want to go beyond the cliches of "peace" etc. to important landmark events - *for example, rule of law, economic prosperity & social disparity, technological advancement, Jewish pluralism, Jewish-Arab coexistence...

8. Are there any developments on which the group does not agree? Discuss them.

9. Bring together the main ideas and close or proceed to stage 2 at a subsequent session.

Resources for Stage 1

See http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/50/act/mat.html Our Galleries

1. http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/100/givon/index.html
2. http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/50/act/fifty/index.html and also
3. http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/100/places/scenes.html
4. http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/100/people/people.html

Stage 2 - Structured development for groups

Use any of the appropriate group activities on http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/50/act/
or
the two Herzl & Post-Zionism files (#20, #21) on
http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/100/act/toc.html

Stage 3 - Review

Draw together the dominant images with which the participants strongly identified in the present and for the future.

Discuss whether these images are changing and whether participants have changed their images of Israel in the course of this activity series.

Ask if images now brought by the group are dissonant and, if so, discuss the reasons for this dissonance and how it affects participants' perception of and feelings for Israel.

Final whip round: Where this places Israel in the future of each participant.

Stage 4. Options for Continuation

* Building a Virtual Jewish World http://www.jewish-world.org.il
* The Virtual Zionist Congress Forums http://www.jewishnt.com/congress/